SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - alarmed the world five years ago as the first global pandemic of the 21st century. The coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that sickened more than 8,000 people - and killed nearly 800 of them - may have originated in bats, but the actual animal source is not known. In an effort to understand [...]

Scientists at Penn State have shed light on some of the processes that regulate genes — such as the processes that ensure that proteins are produced at the correct time, place, and amount in an organism — and they also have shed light on the evolution of the DNA regions that regulate genes. The team [...]

People diagnosed with diabetes spend over $4,100 more each year on medical costs than people who don’t have diabetes, a gap that increases substantially each year following the initial diagnosis, according to a study published online today in the journal Diabetes Care. In the first study to examine medical cost increases for individuals living with [...]

Cells from the human nose are showing further promise in remediating spinal cord injury, according to research from the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Six weeks after injecting cells from the human nose (olfactory ensheathing glia) into the injured spinal cords of rats, the researchers found improvements in the animals’ movement. “We [...]

A leading international scientist will reveal how the latest techniques in microscopy - including time-lapse imaging of living cells - are leading to breakthroughs in understanding genetic and acquired diseases. In a public lecture next Tuesday to launch the Electron Microscope Unit’s Golden Jubilee Symposium, Professor Hans Tanke, the Head of the Department of Molecular [...]

MorphoSys AG and Galapagos NV announced today the launch of a long term co-development alliance aimed at discovering and developing antibody therapies based on novel modes of action in bone and joint disease, including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis. The alliance spans all activities from target discovery through to completion of proof of concept clinical [...]

Following reports that an 18-year-old student celebrating ’schoolies’ week on Queensland’s Gold Coast has been hospitalised with meningococcal disease, health officials have warned schoolies that the after-effects of drinking or drug-taking could disguise the onset of the disease. Queensland health workers are trying to contact 13 other students who may have had close and [...]

New research from the U.S. has found that a drug widely used to prevent premature births offers no benefit. Pregnant woman who enter into early labour are often given drugs to quieten the woman’s uterus and prevent premature birth. Pregnancy normally lasts 40 weeks and preterm births are defined as deliveries before 37 weeks of [...]

According to the Australian Medical Association (AMA) when conditions for staff and patients at regional hospitals are compared with those at city hospitals, our country cousins lose out. A Clinicians Hospital Improvement Coalition has banded together comprised of the AMA, the Hospital Reform Group and the Doctors Reform Society and according to AMA president Brian [...]

A former Sydney skin cancer doctor who may have jeopardised the health of thousands of his former patients is apparently planning to appeal against his deregistration. Following a Health Department investigation which revealed serious concerns about the treatment of some of David Lindsay’s patients received at the Mid-City Skin Cancer Centre in George Street, in [...]